Russians rally for annexing Crimea

Saturday

Mar 8, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 8, 2014 at 2:05 PM

MOSCOW - Russia was swept up in patriotic fervor yesterday for bringing Crimea back into its territory, with thousands of people thronging Red Square waving flags and chanting "Crimea is Russia!" as a parliamentary leader declared that the peninsula would be welcomed as an "equal subject" of Russia.

MOSCOW — Russia was swept up in patriotic fervor yesterday for bringing Crimea back into its territory, with thousands of people thronging Red Square waving flags and chanting “Crimea is Russia!” as a parliamentary leader declared that the peninsula would be welcomed as an “equal subject” of Russia.

The semi-autonomous region belongs to Ukraine, but the local parliament has called a March 16 referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia, a move President Barack Obama has called a violation of international law.

Tensions in Crimea were heightened late in the evening when pro-Russian forces tried to seize a Ukrainian military base in the port city of Sevastopol, according to the Ukrainian branch of the Interfax news agency. No shots were fired, but stun grenades were thrown, according to the report, citing Ukrainian officials.

About 100 Ukrainian troops are stationed at the base and they barricaded themselves inside one of their barracks, the report said, adding that their commander began negotiations. Crimea’s pro-Moscow leader denied any incident at the base.

In the week since Russia seized control of Crimea, Russian troops have been neutralizing and disarming Ukrainian military bases on the Black Sea peninsula. Some Ukrainian units, however, have refused to surrender.

Crimea’s new leader has said pro-Russian forces numbering more than 11,000 now control all access to the region and have blockaded all military bases that haven’t yet surrendered.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that sanctions for Russian actions in Crimea could backfire, the ministry said in a statement. In a telephone conversation, Lavrov urged the U.S. not to take “hasty, poorly thought-out steps that could harm Russian-U.S. relations, especially concerning sanctions, which would unavoidably boomerang on the U.S. itself,” the statement said.

The strategic peninsula has become the flashpoint in the battle for Ukraine, where three months of protests sent President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing to Russia. Moscow calls the new Ukrainian government illegitimate, and has seized control of Crimea, where it has a major naval base on the Black Sea.

Although President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia has no intention of annexing Crimea, he insisted that its residents have the right to determine the region’s status in the referendum.

Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, made clear yesterday that the country would welcome Crimea if it votes in the referendum to join its giant neighbor. About 60 percent of Crimea’s population identifies itself as Russian.

“If the decision is made, then (Crimea) will become an absolutely equal subject of the Russian Federation,” Matvienko said during a visit from the chairman of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov. She spoke of mistreatment of Russian-speaking residents in Ukraine’s east and south, which has been Moscow’s primary argument for possible intervention in Ukraine.

The Russian parliament is scrambling to make it easier for Crimea to join Russia. Russia’s constitution allows the country to annex territory only by an agreement “initiated … by the given foreign government.” That would entail signing an agreement with the new authorities in Kiev, whom Moscow doesn’t recognize.

New legislation would sidestep that requirement, say members of parliament, who initially said a new bill could be passed as soon as next week, but since have indicated that they will wait until after the referendum.

In Red Square, 65,000 people gathered at a Kremlin-organized rally for Crimea.

“We always knew that Russia would not abandon us,” Konstantinov shouted from the stage. He also called on Moscow not to forget other Russia-leaning regions in Ukraine.

The Russian state gas company Gazprom also increased the pressure on Ukraine’s new government, which now owes $1.89 billion for Russian natural gas. Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said if Ukraine doesn’t pay off its debt, “There is a risk of returning to the situation of the beginning of 2009,” when Russia cut off supplies to Europe because of a pricing dispute with Ukraine.

The new government, which is struggling to stabilize Ukraine’s finances and failing economy, got encouraging news yesterday from the International Monetary Fund, which said that economic assistance was on the way.

“I am positively impressed with the authorities’ determination, sense of responsibility and commitment to an agenda of economic reform and transparency,” Reza Moghadam, the IMF’s European Department director, said in a statement after a two-day visit. “The IMF stands ready to help the people of Ukraine.”

Russia has denied that its forces are active in Crimea, describing the troops who wear green uniforms without insignia as local “self-defense forces.”

Hoping to pressure Russia to roll back its military presence, the U.S. imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on Russians and other opponents of the new Kiev government on Thursday. The European Union suspended talks with Russia on a wide-ranging economic agreement and on granting Russian citizens visa-free travel.

Crimea would become the first territory to join Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia after a brief 2008 war with Russia, have been recognized as independent by Moscow, but there have been few serious moves to enable them to join Russia.

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